


The Mechanics of Love

by alyse



Category: Firefly
Genre: Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-06
Updated: 2010-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-05 21:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyse/pseuds/alyse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes a man gets to wondering.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mechanics of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [terimaru](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=terimaru).



> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/mmom/profile)[**mmom**](http://community.livejournal.com/mmom/) and my [](http://terimaru.livejournal.com/profile)[**terimaru**](http://terimaru.livejournal.com/), because I've been promising her Mal/Inara forever.
> 
> Thanks to [](http://browncoat-2x2.livejournal.com/profile)[**browncoat_2x2**](http://browncoat-2x2.livejournal.com/) for the title.

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[fic fandom: other](http://alyse.livejournal.com/tag/fic+fandom:+other), [fic genre: het](http://alyse.livejournal.com/tag/fic+genre:+het), [fic genre: slash](http://alyse.livejournal.com/tag/fic+genre:+slash), [mmom: 2008](http://alyse.livejournal.com/tag/mmom:+2008)  
  
---|---  
  
**Pairing:** Mal, some Mal/Inara implied and some Inara/Kaylee implied

**Spoilers:** Set mid TV series

**Disclaimer:** Firefly belongs to Joss Whedon, Fox and Mutant Enemy

~*~

The scrubbers on Inara's shuttle never seemed to work right. He'd get Kaylee working on them if there weren't a hundred other things that needed doing on _Serenity_ and all of them a mite more important than making sure that Inara's shuttle didn't smell of Companion business. Not that it smelled of the whoring - just an overwhelming, sweet scent of incense, maybe even some of that tea she brewed for the high and mighty ones she 'entertained'.

Kaylee seemed to like it there. Whenever the girl went missing, Mal could guarantee finding her making nice with Inara. Inara might fair turn her head, but even Mal couldn't deny the obvious affection Inara held for his mechanic. Long as Kaylee didn't get to thinking that she needed to put on the same airs and graces as her friend, they'd all get along just fine.

He couldn't shake his head of the thought that maybe Inara was sharing a mite more than tea with Kaylee. She was a sweet one, that girl, but Mal weren't of any mind to forget the first time he met her - flat on her back underneath his first mechanic, the one who knew even less, it seemed, 'bout seemly behaviour on board his ship than he did about making Mal's ship sing.

Kaylee made _Serenity_ sing. She made his old ship sing as sweetly as anything, knowing just where to touch her, just how to handle her to get that engine purring like it was fit to simply melt under her touch.

And it weren't that Mal wasn't grateful. He might be a proud man, but he wasn't a stupid one. He knew damned well how lucky he was to have found Kaylee, so if she wanted to spend time with Inara, he wasn't going to object. Much.

It was just he spent far too much time wondering exactly **how** the two of them spent their time, and he wasn't Jayne. It weren't exactly seemly for him to be having such thoughts, let alone have them keeping him awake at night.

But they did. Mind, he had trouble sleeping some nights. Had since the War. Might be down to that rather than… curiosity.

Not that it didn't make for an interesting picture, if his mind were inclined to stray in that direction. Inara might be highly trained but Kaylee… well, he'd be bound that she had some native talent in making her partners purr too, just as sweet as anything mechanical she put her hands to.

And sometimes, in the blackness of the void, a man got to thinking those things he shouldn't, like picturing his mechanic and his… he weren't sure what Inara was except a major pain in the pegu. And maybe a man got to doing a mite more than thinking.

It was a long time between ports, and it had been even longer since Mal had been inclined to dock anywhere. He had enough complications in his life - and in his crew. He didn't need to be adding to them. So he was back to his old standby - making sure he saw to his own equipment. At the end of the day, even Kaylee might not be able to figure out how it worked as well as he could.

Course, finding some space on this ship where he weren't interrupted in the inspection and cleaning of his weapon would be a gorram miracle. It weren't like he could do a Jayne and openly admit he'd be in his bunk. Sometimes a man just had to stomp and cuss and basically make himself a hun dan to get some gorram peace. And if it meant that Zoe finally lost patience with him and pretty much ordered him off the bridge, or Jayne spent a day or so skulking around the corridors instead of giving Mal the opportunity to let off some steam in another way, well, those were the cards he played with.

Long as he didn't make Kaylee cry again and suffer a week's silence from everyone in retaliation, it was worth it. Course, if he did make Kaylee cry again, his life wouldn't be worth anything. And it weren't fair of him to do it. Weren't like she could help what Mal thought. Weren't like she could help the way his mind wandered, the way it didn't just consider the what she might be doing, but maybe even the who.

Weren't like she had anything to do with that ugly little worm that twisted in a man's chest sometimes when he thought about the things he shouldn't. Weren't like Mal could help it either - he couldn't pin it down or rip it out. It just sat there, burrowing deeper and deeper 'til he fair ached with it.

So instead he picked fights with his crew 'til they were sick of the sight of him. And then he found somewhere quiet, thought about things that weren't seemly and brought himself some short-term relief that eased the ache low in his belly but did nothing to ease the ache in his chest.

It was better that way. For everyone.

Because the scrubbers in Inara's shuttle never seemed to work right, and Mal couldn't go on wondering if the incense was to hide the scent of sex.

The End


End file.
